rachael
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Posts posted by rachael
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Aliens of course!!
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I think the French are the best
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Cookies. Hate them unless they can be eaten.
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Those things are worse than the keitai thing going on.
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Ug, not even insured - perhaps I should be
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Harsh
Whats the best place down there then?
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I would choose Honshu and check all all the variety there is here.
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No money to anyone.
Thats what I say.
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About the movies - like someone else said, I think they're seriously cutting costs on that side of things too showing lots more crappy movies and virtually no new blockbusters.
I want Matrix 2 and T3 on my return flight in August!
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So much to choose from - I think I'd be lost too.
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I'm glad I don't have to do that every day
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Strong old fashioned brit accents annoy me
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I never thought Ford was particularly cool in the first place.
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But someone coming to a forum might want more a "discussion" and ideas from people instead of just reading an article.
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I always seem to put on at least a few kg when I go back home - all the goodies and home cooking I put back.
Anyone else?
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Yeah, lets hear some sounds
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I watched Fullhouse today on LaLa. Best left to memory I reckon
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I do the same as you rach, send a postal cheque home once or twice a year.
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I found this on another news forum, don't know where the source is:
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Carefree Japan heading for HIV explosion
June 3, 2003
Although severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) has not yet been reported on Japan's shores, many people still fear an outbreak of the virus. But at the same time another deadly virus is spreading within the country at a worrying rate while largely going unnoticed -- HIV.
As of the end of March a total of about 8,000 people in Japan, excluding hemophiliacs, were infected with HIV, the virus that can develop into full-blown AIDS. Although this is lower than in many other countries, analysts predict that the number of HIV and AIDS cases will keep rising and could even break through to 27,000 by 2006.
Across Japan, a total of 614 people, including Japanese and foreigners, were reported as having contracted HIV last year, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry panel on AIDS. This figure was on the same level as the 621 cases recorded the previous year, but of these cases, the number of Japanese males with the virus reached a record 481.
In the three months ending in March this year, a total of 146 new HIV cases emerged, compared with the 139 reported during the same period the previous year, while another 68 people came down with AIDS.
While there is a tendency for the rate of infections to decrease in developed countries, data from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says that in Japan the number of yearly infections has gone against this trend and continued to rise.
Shinichi Oka, a research and development worker at the International Medical Center of Japan agrees that the AIDS problem includes Japan, not just distant countries overseas.
"Although the problem is not as bad as in South Africa, there is a possibility that the number of cases in Japan will soon increase explosively," he said.
What particularly worries Oka is the increase in positive infection results for those who go in for free tests at public health centers. In 2000 a total of 107,266 people took the tests, compared with 108,911 in 2002, but the percentage of positive tests doubled from 0.116 percent to 0.241 percent during this period. In Tokyo's Shinjuku-ku, home to the Kabukicho red light district, the rate climbed from 0.69 percent to 1.113 percent -- more than one out of every 100 people tested.
"(These figures were) a shock. It is likely that (the infected people) were previously sexually active and of course they don't know who their partners were," Oka says. "One person infects another, two people infect another two, four people infect four, and so on. Infections probably pass from one person to the other in some cases without either of them knowing about the virus. I think the 900 HIV infections each year is more likely like 3,000.
"Once a certain level is reached, the rate accelerates rapidly. That is the scary thing about infections diseases. In Japan the situation is one where a parabola is set to rise on a steep curve," he says.
A research team for the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry founded by Masahiro Kihara, a professor in Kyoto University's graduate school of medicine, predicts an alarming increase in the number of cases in Japan over the next few years. The group estimates that the number of HIV patients will rise to 22,000 people by 2006. Including the number of predicted AIDS patients, the total figure will hit 27,000, researchers say.
The first HIV and AIDS cases were discovered in Japan in 1985. In the 17 years since then up until the end of March this year, about 8,000 people have become infected in Japan. But if the predictions are correct this figure will more than triple in just 3 1/2 years. "We will not be able to avoid an explosive increase in the near future," a group researcher said.
It seems that changes in moral attitudes and misconceptions in society among people who have contracted HIV are partly behind the increase.
Although some people may embrace the notion that AIDS is something that happens to people in Southeast Asia, a total of 77.2 percent of the HIV 614 infections recorded last year occurred within Japan. Of these infections, 53.6 percent were through homosexual contact while 33.1 percent passed from one sex to the other. Infections from mother to child through pregnancy accounted for 0.5 percent.
By gender men accounted for most of the infections, but restricted to the 15- to 19-year-old group females accounted for 68.8 percent of the infections. In the 20- to 24-year-old group the figure reached 57 percent.
In a National Police Agency survey of high school students, whose results were released at the end of last year, more than 50 percent of both high school boys and girls said that the choice of whether a girl the same age should have sexual relations with a person she doesn't know is up to the girl herself. At the same time the number of child prostitution cases that occurred last year though dating sites hit 268, more that 2.3 times that of the previous year.
A separate survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare found that the number of artificial abortions carried out by women under 20 climbed from 26,117 in 1995 to 46,511 in 2001. The number of issued condoms dropped from 1.1 million to 840,000 during the same period.
UNAIDS has criticized Japan in the past for sexual turbulence in the country, pointing out the existence of the phrase "sex friend." But some point out that the rise in AIDS is not caused by sexual disorder alone. Chizuko Ikegami, a former University of Hawaii researcher and a member of the nonprofit Place Tokyo organization supporting infected people, has talked with those who have contracted HIV since 1994. She says that even people who are sincere can become victims.
"Even when there is genuine love with the person only having had an experience with one person, there is still a risk of infection," she says. "People should put on condoms in the same way the put on face masks for SARS prevention."
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Sensitive bunch at times arent we all?
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That would be a good skill to have.
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Hey when your snow season start then??
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FEATURE : ARAI Resort Q&A - Part 1
in Snow talk, trip reports, Japan avalanche & backcountry
Posted
That is a nice read there Blair and great to see a resort putting so much effort into things.
Here's hoping you cover my question in the next installemtn.
PS 1 more quick question....why do you always use capitals (ARAI) instead of (Arai)?